I cannot continue to put six quarts of milk in my fridge everyday.
My three goats have put me over the top. Unlike Deborah I haven't learned to make all kinds of cheese and with just two of us we really don't need it. I have made ice cream, yogurt, cajeta, soft cheese and frozen a lot. I have given some away and traded for eggs weekly. Still too much! My last freshened one is still nursing as well.
However...I am going to once a day milking with my two that freshened in early March. I am thinking one is bred for late November. The other will go in with the buck next month. I have got to get these kiddings staggered so I don't have so much milk.
I have threatened to take a milk bath to move some of it along!
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This is a little strange but I feed extra milk to my pumpkin plants.
Forgot to say that the wonderful lady is who sold me my does. :-)
Count me among those that had never drank goat milk and had been told it was awful. It wasn't until I was working on the committee updating our urban livestock code that my mind was opened. Ann Lawrence who is one of our local CSA farmers, sitting next to me, was talking about the Nigerian Dwarfs and how precious they are for pets and provided good milk. I posted on a sustainable living list asking if anyone had NDs as I would like to visit some. The wonderful lady who responded invited me to her farm and while there gave me a taste of fresh cold milk; this was nearly three years ago. It was delicious. It was not long after that I started buying through our food buy club from a local dairy and started making ice cream, tried cheese once. I had added incentive because my middle son has become lactose intolerant but the ice cream doesn't seem to bother him. So now, I can make ice cream that we can all eat.
What impressed me was the delicious sweet flavor of milk from her goats. She told me that it is the bucks nearby that causes the peculiar taste as well as what the does are fed. Feed makes perfect sense; garbage in, garbage out would apply there as well. I did give my son a taste of milk after I picked up my order one day but it had been in a cooler and not in the fridge yet, he didn't like it which surprised me. I tasted it also; it wasn't good so I learned it does need to be cold! I am willing to bet if your friends are used to raw cow milk and you give them some cold fresh goat milk, they will think it is good and may not even guess it is goat milk. You can always start them with ice cream and just not tell them it's made from goat milk, your argument later that they cannot tell the difference when you offer them straight cold milk. I'm looking forward to when my son can try Capri's fresh milk. :-)
Yup, that is what I was thinking. Isin't is sad that people cannot get over their precog. of goats milk? I have asked several people when talking about my goats if they have ever had goats milk and they all but gag and say heck no. Well, how do you know you do not like it if you do not taste it? It's the best stuff on earth!
Kelly and margaret,
I guess you are assuming I am not giving away as much as possible. I am. My sister takes two to four quarts a week as well. But we live in a very small town (53 people) in a very rural area. The other piece of this is that not everybody will drink goat's milk. Here, in order to buy you need to purchase at the farm. Gas is expensive and we live in the boonies.
Home made cheese went to work with husband twice last week.
As the mother of so many and with milk as high as it is, it being impossible to keep milk here, I do feel sad hearing this and wonder are there no large families close by that could use the overflow of your blessing! I imagine that perhaps a church could help if you do not know of one on your own. God does bless us in order that we may use our blessings to bless others! I know it is difficult at your age and it will be rough on me too! I will be doing 1 milking if I get overloaded, that is for sure!
Why not give some to a family member or sell some?
Thanks, Glenna Rose.
Deb, I used to make soap and we used to keep pigs. No more, too old and tired to add anything else. besides I have a garden going great guns to tend and a doll business on Etsy.
Too bad I love to do so many things and that the body makes decisions that slow me down, LOL.
Oh, how I hope to have your problem some day! I get my cup each morning and wish it was at least a pint and am buying goat milk for ice cream. Congrats may not be in order since you are over-brimming with milk, but congrats anyway. :-)
LOL on the milk bath! You could start making soap and sell it. Or get a couple of pigs to feed out. I know how you feel though. I hate it when I don't have time to use all of the milk. I just remind myself that if it goes to the pigs, it is ultimately for us too.